PFA Awards

Unsurprisingly, Cristiano Ronaldo scooped the PFA Player of the Year award last night, and given the stats of his season, there’s absolutely no way anyone can argue really. The Portuguese winger has continued his exponential rise into the history books, surpassing even last year’s wondrous season as he closes in on 30 Premier League goals. Due to the somewhat controversial post-match histrionics at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, it was deemed inappropriate by Sir Alex for Cristiano to put on his sluttiest little black dress to accept the award himself, but we’re assured the necessary orgy back in his jizz-cuzzi still took place anyway.

Ronaldo also made the PFA-nominated Team of the Season too, of which strangely only David James and Ashley Young were not drawn from Liverpool, Arsenal or Manchester United. Conspicuously absent altogether though are Chelsea representatives, which would almost seem to suggest that perhaps, I dunno, every other player in the country hates them and thinks they’re all shit. I find that hard to believe, maybe all the votes for their players were just lost in the post…recount anyone?

What’s most bizarre about this somewhat self-congratulatory tradition though is that the voting is actually finalised by the end of January so hypothetically had, say, Emile Heskey scored 20 goals in February, March and April he still wouldn’t have made the cut. We will be doing our own Team of the Year in a fortnight’s time when everything has actually finished, but in the interim, here then are the PFA’s picks for August – January:

David James (Portsmouth)
Bacary Sagna (Arsenal)
Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd)
Nemanja Vidic (Man Utd)
Gael Clichy (Arsenal)
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal)

Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd)
Ashley Young (Aston Villa)
Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal)
Fernando Torres (Liverpool)

It’s hard to argue with the majority of the list, but interesting The Spoiler have suggested various updates which attempt to take in the season as a whole up to this past week. It’s hard to argue with some of their suggestions, but obviously no subjective list can ever really capture the true spectrum of a full 38 match season. The likes of Ferdinand, Clichy, Fabregas, Gerrard and Adebayor for example have dropped off significantly since January, while other early season potential nominees such as Man City’s Elano have similarly diminished a touch. Several Blackburn and Portsmouth players particularly deserve recognition for their graft this season, each side succeeding without really flashing the cash of some of their rivals, but obviously each have also had their ups and downs. Also there has to be some consideration of pay-pack and reputation, with many unsung heroes attached to the bottom few clubs (such as Wigan’s Paul Scharner, Birmingham’s Radhi Jaidi and Reading’s Marcus Hahnemann, just to name three) never likely to get a mention.

Anyway these lists are always primarily to generate debate, so drop some of your suggestions into the Comments box and stay tuned for our hopefully conclusive Team of the Year coming after the dust has settled in a fortnight’s time…